Messi is a player of historical caliber and has been recognized as a talented player in football for many years, and his agility and ease of play have long won the applause of the global audience. Of course, among the talented players, Messi's diligence and self-discipline are also very prominent. To have a national Messi, even if it is a low-end version, can be called the hope of many national football media and fans.
Since Messi became famous, there have also been many offspring players who have been named "Messi of a certain country" in the football world. Who are they and what about the next development? In this article, the author will make a little tidying up to make an inventory. Of course, due to space limitations, if there are other choices of lost pearls, please also leave a message in the comment area to add.
8. Lee Seung-woo (Korea)
As a prodigy of Korean football, Lee Seung-woo became famous very early. When he was taken away from Incheon United by the Barça Academy, Lee Seung-woo was 13 years old. During his training at Barcelona, Li Shengyou really showed a good growth potential.
Back at the 2014 U16 Asian Cup, Lee Seung-woo became a hit, winning the tournament's Best Player and Golden Boot. In the later U17 World Cup & U20 World Cup, as the number ten in South Korea, Lee Seung-woo's performance is very good, coupled with the 1.7-meter height of the front waist, and then by the South Korean media as "South Korea Messi".
At the 2018 Asian Games, Li Shengyou played well, accompanied Byson Heung-min to pass the barrier and won the gold medal at the Asian Games, the two of them together won the preferential treatment of exempting soldiers YI, and in the 2018 World Cup, 20-year-old Li Shengyou broke through the final big list. Although he did not play, this move is enough to reflect the high expectations and love of the Korean football community for him.
However, in fact, Li Shengyou should have performed better and grown faster. Limited by Barca's illegal introduction of young players in those years and FIFA's penalty ban, Li Shengyou did not get the opportunity to play in the later stages of Barca's training and could not practice with the game. Roughly speaking, corresponding to this, we see that "Japanese Messi" Kumiying left Barca early in order to seek the opportunity to play exercise, preferring to return to the J1 League FC Tokyo U18 echelon to practice first.
Missing the stage of the best foundation, Lee Seung-woo performed very generally in Europe after entering the adult team. In the two years since he was sold by Barca to Verona in Serie A in 2017, Lee Seung-woo made a total of 37 Appearances in Serie A, scoring 2 goals and performing badly. At present, Li Shengyou plays for the middle and lower reaches of the Portuguese Premier League team Portimonense, positioning himself as a substitute. The 23-year-old is still young, and there is still a future for training in Chinese football, but for Li Shengyou, a genius who once moved Asia, there is no doubt that the early stage of the club's career has begun an avalanche, and the gap with Jiu Jianying will only widen.
7. Hisa Health English (Japan)
On the sense of the ball, the long health care Ofe Ying in the scope of Asian football should be historical. At the age of eight, Kuyasu stood out from the training camp in Barcelona in Japan, becoming the MVP among more than 300 children who were trained and trained, and was subsequently taken by Barcelona to La Masia for training. In the U11-U14 stage, Ku jianying's performance was the best in the team, and his performance of being able to shoot well naturally won him the reputation of "Japanese Messi".
Following on from Lee Seung-woo's paragraph, back in 2015, Barcelona had serious irregularities in the transfer operation of underage players, and suffered transfer and suspension fines issued by FIFA. In order to seek the opportunity to compete, Jiu Jianying returned to the youth echelon of FC Tokyo to practice. In 2019, the 18-year-old Jiu Jianying returned to Spain to join the Real Madrid B team. Since then, he has been loaned by Real Madrid to three teams, Namela, Villarreal and Getafe.
In terms of strength, Jiu Jianying is currently the main level of the middle and lower reaches of La Liga. After years of practice, Jiu Jianying is very good at body coordination, flexibility, transmission and control technology, and has a world-class level of short-distance start-up outbreaks. However, the height of 173cm Jiu Jianying is relatively thin, the skeleton is relatively small, the weight has been floating between 65KG and 67KG for many years, and the poor frontal confrontation ability will definitely affect his upward development. In contrast, Messi, who is slightly shorter in height, has reached 72KG in weight, and his body fat rate, muscle line, and strength of the lower plate are excellent.
Azmun (Iran)
Among the players on the list, Azmoun is the one who is least similar in height and physique to Messi. However, as a 1.86-meter-tall arrow forward, Azmoun's speed, breakthrough, and small skills under his feet are indeed quite rare among Asian players, and it is not too much to call him "Iranian Messi" in this perspective. After becoming famous in the local league, Azmoun went to the Russian Premier League to develop.
In Kazan Ruby, Rostov, Zenit and other teams, this son has performed well, and there have been many famous scenes on the European stage that have penetrated the powerful goal. Since joining Zenit in 2019, Azmoun has scored 42 goals in 62 appearances. For the national team, Azmoun's performance of 34 goals in 52 games is quite strong. To this day, the author still can't understand where Feng Xiaoting's courage came from, how dare he dare not choose to clear the ball out first and then fight with Azmoun to fight against the speed and then be successfully stepped on by the latter.
In recent years, there have actually been many mid-range teams in the five major leagues and even teams of the Reds' Liverpool level who have sparked with them. However, perhaps considering that being the core of the Russian strong team is comfortable, respected, paid a decent salary, and has a Chance to play in Europe, this Iranian player has not gone to the five major leagues.
Marco Marin (Germany)
At the beginning of his career, Marco Marlin had a good start in the Bundesliga. Whether during his time at Borussia Borussia Nordsberg or Werder Bremen, the son played well, and his playing style was close to Messi's core style of play.
Coupled with the fact that his height and posture of 1.7 meters are close to Messi's and his dribbling skills are outstanding, Marco Marlin was naturally awarded the title of "Messi of Germany". In these low-quality other countries, Messieri, I personally think that Marco Marlin's organizational vision and ball quotient in his youth are actually quite good. Of course, Marco Marin's bad boy atmosphere was also very attractive to fans at the time.
Unfortunately, after leaving Werder Bremen in 2012 to join England powerhouse Chelsea, Marco Marlin showed a clear inconsistency in the Blues system. Looking back at the squad at that time, Chelsea had Lampard, Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar and other players in midfield, and the talent was saturated. Considering the style of play and characteristics, Marin's most direct competitor is Hazard, who may not have a big gap between pure dribbling ability and Messi, so it is no wonder that he will lose.
After a bitter winter, Mourinho, who entered the palace directly treated Marin as a "former asset", who became a member of the taxi army and traveled to a number of second- and third-rate league clubs in Europe. Currently, Marin, 32, is retiring at the Saudi Akhali club.
Arun Halalovic (Croatia)
To date, the 24-year-old Khalilovic still holds the record of the youngest goal scorer in the Croatian national football team and the youngest international to play in Croatian national football. In the history of the Champions League, this man is the second youngest player to play.
After Messi became famous, it was not only other clubs that were looking for the next Messi, but also Bartholone was looking for the next Messi. A year after failing to train Bojan and choosing to sell him to Roma, they signed talented striker Arun Khalilovic from Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb.
Careless, full of losses. Due to his early arrival at Barca, the young Khalilovic simply did not have the strength to play in the Barca first team. At Barca's first team, Halilovic had few chances to make an appearance, with the most impressive one going back to the 2015 Copa del Rey 16-8 match. At the time, Halalovic came on as a substitute in the second half. It is worth mentioning that Khalilovic was replaced by the talent Traore, who also did not get a chance at Barcelona. After that, Halalovich was constantly on loan.
La Liga Gijón, Bundesliga Hamburg, Las Palmas in Las Palmas, Serie A AC Milan, Standard Liège in the Serie A, Heerenveen in the Dutch League, Birmingham in the Championship, in the six years since leaving Barca, Khalilovic has gone through the development of these countries, and the original talent has gradually faded. Not to mention the talent gap, for a young Croatian talent who can't even speak English well, the early experience of his career is so tossing and turning in a strange environment, it is indeed difficult to cash in on the aura of "Croatian Messi".
BOJAN Kolkic (Spain)
Messi's touch on football is unparalleled in the world, and his physical toughness and psychological qualities are also amazing. Compared with the young players of the same age group, Bojan's talent is indeed very good, but it is still far from messi in the same period. Before Euro 2008, Bojan's choice to voluntarily withdraw from the national team with "unable to withstand mental and physical pressure" is still fresh in my mind.
In terms of style, Bojan is actually more like a Spanish striker like Pedro, running position with a stop and shooting is very good, the frontal dribbling assault ability is also accomplished, and the thin body naturally makes him unable to hold the ball on his back. Perhaps, if the original Boyang came out with the aura of "Pedro II", his chances of playing out would be much higher, but under the fanaticism of the fans in the Catalan region who attached importance to Gen Zhengmiao, Boyang was over-level and became the "new Messi".
Under the addition of fragile mentality, glass body, and poor career planning ability, Bo yang wasted his talent that can be called the best in the field, and eventually gradually became a mediocre talent, which is quite a pity. Currently, at the age of 30, Bojan plays for the Montreal Impact Club in major league soccer.
Sherdan Sachiri (Switzerland)
With the same height as Messi, plus dribbling technique being the biggest selling point of his debut, Shaqiri was naturally dubbed "Swiss Messi" when he made a name for himself at the Swiss Club basel. Unfortunately, since becoming famous in Basel and then having a relatively good playing stage at Bayern Munich, Shaqiri has been reversing his performances since then.
After moving between Inter, Stoke City and Liverpool, Shaqiri still has the ability to survive in the top flight, but has not been able to regain the glory of genius. Shaqiri is currently positioned as a substitute at Liverpool, playing a total of 18 Games in the Champions League and League this season, scoring 2 assists. However, in terms of the national team, Shaqiri has been a Swiss thigh in the past seven or eight years, and has been named the best in the whole game in important competitions many times.
Mohammed Salah (Egypt)
In addition to a year before the purchase of "Swiss Messi" Shaqiri, the Reds took over from Rome the real "Egyptian Messi" Salah in Serie A. Compared with Messi, Salah's biggest similarity is that he is also a left-footed player and has a good combination of human balls. However, salah's gap with Messi in dribbling is still relatively obvious, and the biggest feature of the Egyptians is actually in the sharp running position and accurate buried door blows.
After joining Liverpool, Salah ushered in a career breakthrough and truly became one of the first-team players in Europe. In his 138 appearances, Salah scored 92 goals, which was quite surprising. From "Egyptian Messi" to "Egyptian Pharaoh", Salah did not become a vassal under the aura, but opened up his true style, which can be regarded as the most successful player in the development of "Messi of a certain country".